The video format is 4:3 and audio only 2.0 but there is enough ambient stuff in the sound track to keep the surrounds busy if using DSP. Not any LFE though. As the reviews mention the animation is overall very good. There is a lot of re-use of some action sequences and many of the female characters seem to have the same looking face and are mainly distinguishable by there cloths. Probably why Kagome is always in her school uniform throughout the series. However, the colours are vibrant and the world lush and nice to see.

This is a character based story above all else and it does a very good job of making you want to care about the characters even one of questionable ethics. While there are many minor story arcs there is one main arc that flows through the whole series holding everything together. My only real quibble with the story is that after 167 episodes the ending seemed a bit rushed and anti-climatic. Other than that I give it a solid 4.5/5.

I still have 4 Inu Yasha movies left to watch so I hope to get to them this weekend.

To take the place of Inu Yasha for a long story run I’ve started watching “Bleach” a (so far) 308 episode, action, comedy, drama, supernatural anime that appears to still be airing since the original air date listed for episode 308 is 11 Feb 2011.

Only a 4:3, 2.0 presentation but overall it still looks and sounds good. The characters are very distinctive, some with unique personalities. The first episode is one the best first episodes I’ve seen and the way the characters are being introduced quickly blends well with the storytelling. I’m up to episode 5 now and the only thing really bothering me it the propensity for the “bad guys” to expound at length about themselves, mainly their abilities and motives. Kind of lazy story telling but the rest of the show more than makes up for it so far.

Normally I wouldn’t start watching a series until all the episodes were releases so as to maintain continuity throughout the story but although I’ve already collected over 30 of the DVDs I wanted to make sure I like the story enough to keep making the effort to collect the rest as they are released. Or get the Japanese versions which I think are up to 55 disks now.

I got home late, and had two BDs from which to choose, Resident Evil 4, or The Social Network. I figured the latter would be quieter. It was, except for a club scene, which had some rather booming bass.

Other than the sound (which was excellent throughout, mostly leading to ease of understand the immense quantity of dialog), the movie was pretty much all I was hoping it would be. David Fincher is one of my three favorite directors (the others being David Lynch and David Cronenberg. OK, I really like Darren Aronofsky, and Quintin Tarantino too), and Aaron Sorkin can really turn a phrase.

All four movies are 16:9 format and Dolby 5.1. Much nicer to see the larger image especially since the animation is better than the series which was actually not slouch itself. The fight scenes are more fluid and backgrounds are more developed.

However, the biggest improvement it the 5.1 soundtrack. Though not up to the quality of something like “Appleseed” it does a pretty good job. Plenty of ambient and direct sound effect for the surrounds and respectable LFE including some below 40Hz which got my Buttkicker going. I think the most impressive thing about the 5.1 is how well both the surround sound and LFE blended with and enhanced the movie w/o being overpowering. I was very impressed that the dialogue followed the on screen action even better than most mainstream movies, in other words it flowed with the characters position including behind the seating rather than anchored to the center channel. Also, the LFE was appropriate to the scene. Explosions had punch while when the Earth moved there was rumble, not the one size fits all LFE the many movies suffer from.

There aren’t really any major spoilers in the movies so they shouldn’t ruin watching the series. And as far a how the movies stand up I agree with the ratings in the reviews above.

I watched my copy of The Social Network. Very nice presentation all-around.

Also watched The American. Beautiful film. Tip: Don't watch it with your parents. Ha ha. Also, the story didn't really say anything that interesting. Any enjoyment is going to be derived from the mood and cinematography. Had some nice audio moments, too.

Sneak peek of the HBO series based on George R.R. Martin's series. I've still only read the first book. While I thought it was well-written, it didn't totally grab me, though I do plan to read the later entries SOMEDAY. In any case, I'm curious to see HBO's adaptation of it.